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Seltox

Posted 10 January 2008 - 01:29 PM

I will be running Windows XP Professional and the Ubuntu Linux distro.

I've been reading up on partitioning, because i'm still very unsure about it all, and when I got to partitioning for Linux, it started to confuse me. Things like

Something like 5GB for root (/), 1GB for home (/home), and 500MB for TMP. Most people also make /var separate. 1GB is more than enough for that.

Would someone care to explain what all of this means? Or your own personal views on Partitioning for Linux. I was thinking i'd just be able to make a Partition for Linux, and that would be the end of it. Everything goes there. Apparently not.

If possible i'd also like some overall partitioning advice or suggestions. I want a partition for Windows XP, Ubuntu, Games, Music, programs and apps and stuff, and just another ...just sitting there Partition . How big would the OS partitions need to be?

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Kemasa

Posted 10 January 2008 - 07:22 PM

I also suggest a second root partition of the same size as "/" so that you can load a second OS and/or upgrade without adversely affecting the known good install.

Then some space for a filesystem for data which can be written by both (depending on the version either FAT32 or NTFS).

The extra space can be setup for data.

Having a separate data partition means you can reload the OS without losing the data.

The small boot is so that you can boot to either one and have multiple versions of the OS. You want to separate the use so that if there is a problem is reduces the chances of not being able to boot the system.

Dngrsone

Posted 10 January 2008 - 08:00 PM

Dngrsone

Member

Member

39 posts

Okay, building on Kemasa's recommendations, you want to have a small partition for /boot. This allows you to make changes to your booting application with no worries about affecting any of your operating systems.

You'll need a swap partition for your Linux distribution(s). Make this about 1.5-2 times the amount of RAM in the computer. If you plan on upgrading your memory in the near future, then calculate based on your planned capacity.

The root partition ("/") for Linux will need at least 4GB. A larger root will ensure you have room for more programs in the future. I generally allocate 8GB for root.

/home is where your data and some programs will reside, for the most part. It is a good idea to put it into a separate partition so that you can reinstall the Linux OS without worrying about your data.

Now I always allocate 20-30GB for Win XP because I end up installing more than a few bloated programs (Office, for example), which is pretty much any program designed for XP.

I usually make a 512MB-2GB "Scratchpad" partition formatted in FAT32 for data that may move between Win and Linux, but the modern distributions are getting better at reading NTFS (and even writing, in some cases), though permissions are still a pain in the butt.

All my media files are in a large partition on their own... again so I don't have to worry about nuking them when installing an OS.